Fiesta Decor for Taco Nights

Apparently, a game night soirée was long overdue as our friends kindly reminded us (ahem, requested). The last game night we hosted was simple and cozy: I made homemade lasagna, and red wine and Cards Against Humanity were enjoyed until the wee hours of the morning.

This year we wanted to try out the game What Do You Meme? and we decided to make Mexican food since we are all taco enthusiasts (I mean really, who isn’t?). We figured tacos would be a fun and easy spread for guests to dig in and customize their meal as they wished.

Of course, the idea of making tacos, guacamole and pico de gallo ignited the perfect excuse for me to decorate a fiesta-inspired party. My boyfriend had to remind me not to go overboard as I excitedly held maracas in my hand when we perused Party City. I defeatedly put the maracas down, but I still made sure to highlight bright Mexican-inspired decor accents, mainly reminiscent of our Puerto Vallarta escapades.

The Spread

Our table was graced with culinary colour. Greens from the guacamole, yellows from the street corn salad, reds from the salsa and peppers. The fragrant aroma of chipotle adobo sauce that my boyfriend simmered with the right amount of heat, and the steak he seared to medium-rare perfection is what naturally brought everyone around our table.

For dessert, fruit flavoured lollipops were available and I whipped up a lazy version of alfajores (I just used lady fingers, dulce de leche and coconut flakes).

Since our table was already filled with the important stuff, I only added simple little touches of Mexicana, starting with the tablecloth itself, and my favourite decor element on this table, a cactus napkin holder…that held cactus napkins! Taco ’bout adorable.

The terracotta plant pots and the little succulent was a fun way to add some Mexican flora and dimension to the spread instead of having them all lay flat.

The Bar

Naturally this is the most visited area, so I knew it had to be the most inviting corner. Our signature bar was wrapped with a colourful string of papel picado (Mexican paper banner), a tray filled with tequila and lime, and a DIY Mexican tile bar sign to indicate where the cerveza was. Actually, the cerveza was being kept cold in the fridge, but this sign certainly lured people close to it.